Standing only a few feet from his teammates, his mind fixed on
the 10 targets in front of him and the challenge of knocking them
down or failing to a degree, Tim Brown might as well be in another
time zone.
Bowling alleys have always provided him sanctuary. Growing up in
Southern California, Brown spent most of his weekend afternoons
away from sunlight, cooped up amid smoky lamps, glossed wood floors
and clattering pins. It still feels like home.
MORGAN HILL
Standing only a few feet from his teammates, his mind fixed on the 10 targets in front of him and the challenge of knocking them down or failing to a degree, Tim Brown might as well be in another time zone.
Bowling alleys have always provided him sanctuary. Growing up in Southern California, Brown spent most of his weekend afternoons away from sunlight, cooped up amid smoky lamps, glossed wood floors and clattering pins. It still feels like home.
Brown, 56, now in his fourth year as general manager of Morgan Hill Bowl, was in his element like never before on Aug. 10 — at his home alley no less. The 16-pound Brunswick ball he clutched in his left hand had never rolled off his fingertips like it did that night. The pins had never fallen away so helplessly. Brown had never been more entrenched.
“Tim was in his zone,” said Leslie Simons, a co-worker at Morgan Hill Bowl and one of Brown’s mates on team Showtime. “We just made sure he’d stay in it. If he’s in his zone, you never talk to Tim.”
With the exception of a 204-effort in Game 2 of a tense mixed-handicap league series, Brown did not miss. He bowled the equivalent of two perfect games in baseball, totaling 12 consecutive strikes in the first and third games for dual 300 scores. Brown had bowled about 30 perfect games before then, but never more than once in the same series.
“I’d say the vast majority of it was skill, but the secret was being lucky,” said Brown, who bowled his first perfect game in 1978. “I’ve bowled for 40 years and have never done that before, so you have to be lucky. You can roll the best of your life and never do it.”
Hence, Brown’s pedestrian performance in Game 2; he usually scores between 230 and 240. Brown collected seven strikes and made several good rolls.
“They just didn’t go down. That’s just being unlucky,” he said. “It doesn’t bother me that I didn’t get 300 in the middle game. That would have probably put a lot of pressure on me for the third one. We’ll never know.”
Bowling two perfect games in the same series is lofty enough, the kind of feat you don’t realistically shoot for.
“I thought it was possible. It’s been done three times in a row nationally,” Brown said. “So, you think about going back to back, but that usually ends on the first roll of the next game.”
Brown felt no pressure heading into Game 3. His team, now in first place by a game and a half, held a comfortable lead over team Hellbent and only needed Brown to roll well consistently to help seal the win. His lengthy career has groomed him to do just that.
As a young man, Brown bowled professionally while holding down a full-time job on the side. But it wasn’t until he entered his mid-40s that Brown reached his bowling prime (don’t let the baldness fool you). Though technology has played a part in his recent success — newer balls are made to grip better and strike more effectively — Brown’s biggest weapon is his focus.
“I just think about the task at hand when I’m up there,” he said. “I focus on what I need to do to make a good shot. Don’t worry about the result.”
That no-pressure approach has helped Brown excel in golf as well. He has shot a hole-in-one — twice.
